Good Earth: Missouri's Old Lead Belt

Photographer Benjamin Hoste explored Missouri’s Old Lead Belt, a largely defunct region of lead mining towns, meeting the people who have remained there despite the collapse of the industry. He recorded their range of opinions over the region’s fading history and the dangers of lead contamination, which in recent months have ensnared Missourian politics, as well as country-wide fears of water pollution. Read his essay for MSNBC, Traveling Missouri’s Fading Old Lead Belt, which this slideshow is a component of. To read more about the effects of lead contamination, see our feature on Flint with photos by Danny Wilcox Frazier.